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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Session # 612: 8 R's Update With Ken Roberts and Kelly Moore, this session focused on conveying and interpreting the results of the 8Rs study and relaying information about the Summit on Human Resources (held in Ottawa in Fall 2008 to discuss a national strategy and action plan). Tentative ideas from the summit:

A national pool of job exchange/internship opportunities, especially for mid-career librarians

Discussions about re-certification: Well, we don’t even have any formal “certification” process. Librarians don’t have to “pass the bar” or pass a standardised test to call themselves librarians. Re-certification, therefore, is just simply “maintaining your skills.”

More management courses are needed in library schools

This is problematic, because students aren’t interested in management courses in library schools, stating “it doesn’t jive with the reason they want to be a librarian.”

Should we be targeting BComm or MBA students to enter library school?

What about joint BComm or MBA / MLIS degrees?

Employers want future managers, and that’s the minority of students. Most students are attracted to the profession because of an expressed desire to help people, or because of the perceived work/life balance in the profession.

Students tend to want to work in the area they studied in – what implication does this have on streams in library schools? Attempts must be made to break down the “sectors.”

Managers at the Summit asked “how can we escape the feeling that people are saying, I take my number and I wait – seniority – and BOOM, I’ll be a manager!”

Session # 1822: Leadership 2009 I was somewhat disappointed by this session, as it was kind of more a booktalk of best-sellers in the business world relating to management/leadership.

A few quick points:

Don’t spend time on the “bottom-feeders” or the “stars” in your organisation: focus on those who, with a little help, could be nudged up to star level. These people can be helped and this help will pay off.

Qs to ask yourself about your organization: what can we be the best in the world at? What appeals to our stakeholders? What is our passion? Put these three answers together and that is your niche. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Our output (“profit” but for non-profit sector) is the extent to which we have accomplished our mission. Our mission should thus be stated in measurable items – not just statistics, but stories.

Most people are most willing to support libraries as transformative (making a difference in the community), rather than informational (the information field is too crowded).

Librarians are particularly in a culture of niceness: this means we often don’t confront problems.

From The Tipping Point: there are 3 types of people. Mavens (know things! Suffer curse of knowledge, and can’t state what they know in 2 minutes!), connectors (the people who know those with influence), and salespeople (people who can make the pitch).

Our biggest donors will likely be people who don’t have library cards.

Top executives shouldn’t stay more than 6 years: studies show that school principals lose effectiveness in 7 years!

N.B. A recommended books list was handed out at this session. I have uploaded the books on the list to my LibraryThing account and they are tagged leadership_OLA (click here).

Justin Trudeau was the closing speaker, and, again, this will be an unpopular view, but I was underwhelmed! Why do librarians insist on being sucked in by charming popular figures who do nothing but get up there and pat us on the back for doing a great job? He said one lovely thing, though, that I jotted down: “To develop empathy, there is no better way than by reading fiction. In fiction, you project yourself into someone else’s experience.”

Fun stuff I picked up or saw:

What’s On @ Toronto Public Library (their program flyer): I especially like how they use icons to ID programs for adult literacy and for Francophones.

Oshawa Public Libraries (Jan/Feb 2009 programs): Great program ideas included MythBusters for kids (debunking myths like, can an egg bounce?), movie nights for movies based on books (City of Ember, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), an Anti-Valentine’s Day Party for teens (cranky crafts, moody music and spiteful snacks, wear black and red), teen travel flicks (docs about travel or different countries for travel-inclined 16-22 year old backpackers), Teen Book/Media swap, Literary Speed Dating (6 mins to talk about your fav books), Coffee and news / News and Views (discussion groups for local, national and international events, co-sponsored with a seniors centre),

TPL branch visits: I went to the Dufferin/St. Clair, Annette St. branches, as well as Toronto Reference Library. Blogged here!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The final version of this is dated August 2008, but, perhaps due to the anarchy of the new ALA website (one more page not found note and I'm going to give up...) I somehow missed it. ALA has released its Core Competences of Librarianship. Warning: that link points to a Word doc. Seriously? How 1.0 of you, ALA! Of course, I suppose our continued use of PDF for the ABQLA bulletin is not much better (we're working on it).

The document includes a section relating to continuing ed. and lifelong learning, which underlines:

"The necessity of continuing professional development of practitioners in libraries and other information agencies.

The role of the library in the lifelong learning of patrons, including an understanding of lifelong learning in the provision of quality service and the use of lifelong learning in the promotion of library services.

Learning theories, instructional methods, and achievement measures; and their application in libraries and other information agencies.

The principles related to the teaching and learning of concepts, processes and skills used in seeking, evaluating, and using recorded knowledge and information."

Totally obvious, but interesting. There's also a whole section about management. Ha. "The principles of effective personnel practices and human resource development" - really? If only.

Usually, I find these types of speculations idiotic, and, at the very least, it's a lazy interviewing question, but I must admit that Toni Morrison's answer when the WP asked her made me tear up. She said, "I think he would be desperately, desperately in love."

If you're goin' all 2.0 these days and debating about which one of those online book cataloguing tools to use (I use LibraryThing, but don't let that sway you!), here are a few good comparison articles:

According to this, TPL visits were up 8% in the last half of 2008. There are the usual "shh" references and an aim-low-why-don't-you quote from Jane Pyper, ""The place is just more appealing." I shouldn't be so critical, though: they do mention other formats we lend (CDs, DVDs, downloads), free wireless, and job workshops.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Two excellent articles in today's Guardian: the first is an interview with Oliver Jeffers, author of How to Catch a Star and Lost and Found. Joanna Carey finds him to be intense, which doesn't surprise me: his books are so simple and so well-crafted that it's evident he is a master at balancing the text and the art in the picture book format. Lost and Found was undeniably one of my favourite winter books for storytime last year.

The second fabulous Guardian article is a review of Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes by a senior lecturer at UEA, where my uncle teaches. Sarah Churchwell says Hill's book loses credibility, in part because of some of the unaddressed coincidences in the narrative that keep Aminata from coming to real, lasting harm throughout her turbulent life. Churchwell's right, especially when she remarks upon the particularly convenient coincidence at the end of the novel, where Aminata is reunited with someone she has lost many years ago. I agree with Churchwell, though, that readers are likely relieved at how Aminata emerges from many crises unbroken: I would add that it is a testament to the human spirit, and to the spirit of men and women who did survive the Middle Passage and build meaningful lives for themselves in Canada and the U.S. I also agree with Churchwell's high praise of Hill's writing: he is absolutely brilliant here, and this in part explains how I devoured the book in three evenings this week, when I really should have been doing other reading.

In related news, those of you attending the Ontario Library Association's Superconference next week may have noticed that Hill's book is the selection for One Book, One Conference (click here and read session 1201 - why can't OLA make internal links on each page of the Superconference schedule? I digress...). Some of you may also know that I've been asked to make a reading map for The Book of Negroes, which will be available at the conference. In fact, I'm folding the maps right now...

Friday, January 23, 2009

I was an early convert to RSS and newsfeeds. I realised it was a great way to keep track of book news: publishing, literary prizes, events, authors' blogs, etc. In some ways, I entered the professional world right on the cusp of things like RSS: in my first job, we kept track of literary prizes on a (physical, not online, even!) calendar. In my second job, I set this up. In my third job, everything was through newsfeeds and Delicious.

I love the immediacy of newsfeeds, and also the sense of being released from the labour of remembering to check various blogs, websites, or newspapers periodically. I appreciate the one-stop-shopping-ness of it all. I also have a terrible memory (there, you have two confessions in one blog entry: I'm an idiot and I have a bad memory. This is why I stayed away from blogging!!! All my secrets are out now!!!)

I think libraries in general absolutely do not make enough use of RSS technology. My employer has newsfeeds for new and on order items, library podcasts, events, and PSAs, which is pretty impressive (check them out here). We (libraries in general) could be making more use of blogging for short news items or hot book-related stuff, like Ann Arbor does. I like that their blog covers everything, from events to collection items - I think that's smart. In some ways, if people choose only an events feed or an "on order" items feed, they miss other news that might interest them, and we miss opportunities for cross-marketing.

I was just checking my feedreader and AADL is the only other public library feed I subscribe to, which is perhaps rather telling. Despite the fact that many entries are community-specific, I still get a lot out of it. In my children's work, for instance, I appreciate seeing what they do for children's events and storytimes.

In the non-library world, I find feeds for certain blogs have been lifesavers. As some of you know, I am still often doubled over with homesickness for Montreal, so get all my hometown news here now, and it helps.

I've wandered so far off the beaten track here I don't quite know how to conclude. Suffice it to say I think I truly would be intellectually crippled without Google Reader. I do still read the papers and follow other media (I swear)! I would, however, be lost (and utterly buried in newsprint) without newsreaders.

And you may want to note this down as the only time I link to E! Online. Seriously, though, VM was a well-crafted, well-written show, and it should not have been cancelled in the first place. Especially not to make room for the drivel they show on TV most of the time. I do think creator Rob Thomas was awfully nice about that, considering...

As the presentation our Learning 2.0 class just listened to says, lifelong learning is attitudinal. "Learners believe," the presentation states, "that one can and should be open to new ideas." I'm a new librarian, and thus not too far away from my formalised learning years in school and university. I still remember starting my first real professional job (well, I should hope so! It was only 5 years ago!) and thinking, this is it? This is all I need to do, technically? I suddenly had tons of free time, unblemished by worry about essays I should be writing, and even some downtime at work (I guess I shouldn't say that. It's not always like that in every job). I figured I might as well do something with this time, so I always had projects on the go, or I signed up for online courses through work. To me, it was natural to continue to incorporate learning into my life, and it was natural to continue a semi-formal set of learning goals.

What I really liked about the presentation we just watched was the mention of creating a learning toolbox or toolkit, a metaphor for the books, technology, classes, websites, mentors, and friends who support your learning processes. I think the lifelong learners who succeed certainly have these supports and are comfortable using them. Sometimes, that makes all the difference.

One final, hokey, note: In our day jobs, don't we all support lifelong learning? We are, after all, the people's university! In fact, that's Cleveland Public Library's motto. So we should be well acquainted with lifelong learning and the means to support it!

This is my personal blog and only contains my own views, thoughts and opinions. It is not endorsed by the Ottawa Public Library, nor does it constitute an official communication of the Ottawa Public Library.